UnitedHealth to purchase DaVita clinics for $four.9 billion

UnitedHealth struck a $four.9 billion deal on Wednesday to accumulate the DaVita Medical Group unit of kidney dialysis agency DaVita in an all-cash transaction.

DaVita Medical Group operates practically 300 clinics and half a dozen outpatient surgical facilities in six states – Florida, California, Colorado, Washington, Nevada and New Mexico.

The DaVita services will change into a part of United’s Optum division, the umbrella for all the noninsurance facet of the enterprise: pharmacy advantages, information analytics, consulting, clinics and surgical facilities and residential care.

“I’m so happy with the DaVita Medical Group accomplishments, together with our wonderful medical outcomes,” mentioned Kent Thiry, DaVita chairman and CEO. “The mixture of DaVita Medical Group and Optum ought to result in even greater ranges of efficiency.”

But, for DaVita, the medical group has considerably underperformed the corporate’s dialysis division. Final month, DMG posted a $5 million working loss within the third quarter attributable to higher-than-expected medical prices, prompting the corporate to place the unit up on the market.

“We’re within the market. We’re persevering with to take a look at belongings that make sense to us, however we have now put collectively, what I might name strong fashions when it comes to how we view the organizations and the way they match,” Optum CEO Larry Renfro mentioned final week at UnitedHealth’s analyst day in New York.

Optum’s integration of knowledge analytics, pharmacy advantages and medical providers has helped fueled UnitedHealth’s development by means of acquisitions. The DaVita deal marks its fourth and largest transaction this yr.

Others within the business at the moment are vying to take a web page from the Optum playbook.

This week, pharmacy advantages agency CVS struck a $60 billion deal to buy Aetna in a bid to create a vertically built-in advantages and health-care system that may be anchored round CVS’ in-store clinics and pharmacies. The businesses say collectively they will present customers with better-coordinated and cheaper care.

Whereas CVS and Aetna have little overlap, the proposed merger might encounter some regulatory scrutiny due to the dimensions of the deal. Till now, that type of health-care mannequin has typically been utilized by hospital methods equivalent to Geisinger Well being and Kaiser Permanente.

DaVita mentioned it plans to give attention to its kidney care enterprise and use the proceeds of the sale for “important inventory repurchases” following the shut of the transaction.

Nonetheless, the corporate doesn’t plan on being a stand-alone enterprise for lengthy in an surroundings the place there’s strain to supply higher worth in well being care.